Gospel Reflection Easter Sunday 2023
Reflection
on the Gospel-Easter Sunday Year A
(Matthew 28:1-10)
-Veronica Lawson RSM
Easter invites us to celebrate life in its fullest sense. It is anything
but easy to celebrate life, however, when many are still dying from COVID and so
much of the Earth community is affected by the climate crisis. Resurrection
faith calls us to be fearless in facing the challenges that confront us.
A faith-filled man and two faith-filled women prepare Jesus for burial. These
three people are fearless in the face of possible reprisals for their support
of a “political criminal”. Joseph of Arimathea cares for Jesus out of his
personal wealth, providing a clean linen cloth and his own newly rock-carved
tomb. With his own hands, he performs the burial ritual, lays Jesus’ body in
the tomb, and rolls the stone into place. The women disciples who witness the
closing of the tomb are both named Mary. One is known as Magdalene (the
“Tower”) and the other is the mother of two male disciples. These women have
been towers of strength, contributing their goods and services to Jesus on the journey
from Galilee to Jerusalem.
The women set out at dawn “to see the tomb’” This seems strange until we
realise that they are functioning as witnesses, this time to the dramatic
opening of the tomb and the appearance of God’s interpretive messenger. “Seeing”
is a metaphor for insight. In the earthquake phenomenon and the allusion to
lightning, there are echoes of other great moments of God’s appearing to Israel,
such as the encounter with Moses and the giving of the Law on Mt Sinai.
The two Marys are the first to learn the news of Jesus’ resurrection and
the first commissioned to proclaim it. The women “see” the place where he was
laid. They obey the angel’s command not to be afraid but to go quickly to
inform the scattered disciples that the resurrected Jesus has gone before them
to Galilee, the place of mission, where they too will “see” him. Resurrection
life energises these faith-filled women disciples/apostles and negates the
death-dealing power of the Roman Empire. Ironically, the Roman tomb guards
become “as though dead”.
As the women hurry away from the tomb, Jesus comes to meet them on the
path or the road. He addresses them with a familiar greeting of joy, Chairete. This is the first appearance
of the resurrected One and it draws from the women a profoundly reverential
response: taking hold of him, they fall down in worship. Jesus reiterates the
commission already delivered by the angel: not to be afraid and to let the men
know what has happened. The male disciples will later be commissioned on the
mountain top (Matthew 28:16-20). We sometimes fail to notice that all are
commissioned, first the women, then the men. Those “on the mountain top” must
not succumb to the temptation of remaining there. They must join those on the
road in fearlessly bringing life to Earth’s afflicted, the human and the more-than-human.
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